ABSTRACT ? LEADERSHIP, PLANNING AND EVALUATION The goal of the Sanford Burnham Prebys Medical Discovery Institute Cancer Center's planning process is to strategize and prioritize programmatic development, intra- and inter-programmatic activities, and Center-wide activities. Effective planning and evaluation processes enable the Center to fulfill its vision of making paradigm- shifting discoveries that will underlie novel therapeutic modalities by creating, translating, and disseminating exceptional cancer basic science. The Cancer Center has established a coordinated and multilayered planning and evaluation process. The de facto Cancer Center Executive Committee is the Cancer Center Leadership Team (CCLT) chaired by the Director and comprising the Deputy Director, the three Associate Directors (Shared Resources, Education and Career Enhancement, and Administration), and the three Program Leaders, who provide scientific guidance, direction, and advice to the Director. The CCLT receives input from the Shared Resources Team chaired by the Associate Director for Shared Resources, and the Administrative Team chaired by the Associate Director for Administration. Advice on programmatic and thematic development, recruitment, and funding of pilot projects is solicited from the Cancer Center External Advisory Board (EAB) through an annual meeting and on an as-needed basis. Review shows that the goals of the 2014 Cancer Center 5-year Strategic Plan were fully achieved in terms of recruitment of seven new faculty in four defined growth areas (metabolism, epigenetics, immunology and bioinformatics), increased access to human tissues through arrangements with two local hospital systems, GEM models, and 21 translational pilot grant awards. A new five-year Strategic Plan was developed at a retreat attended by nearly all Center members in late November 2018, which established future scientific direction for the Programs and target areas for the recruitment. The new Strategic Plan is a shared-governance document that combines bottom-up input from the Center faculty with elements of top-down planning by the Director and CCLT, and is in concordance with the Institute's 10-year vision of building on existing strengths in research discovery (new targets) and early small molecule lead discovery (therapeutics). The CCLT holds monthly meetings at which among other activities, it evaluates the Center's progress in achieving goals established by the 5-year Strategic Plan, and in other areas including education, team science, and minority representation. Future growth areas identified by the new Strategic Plan are for 13 recruitments in the next grant period in chemical biology, structural biology, bioinformatics and immunology/vaccinology, while needed resources identified were improved access to animal models, new immunology targets and the need to adapt more rapidly to developing technologies. Progress toward providing for these needs has already begun. Several recruitments are underway or planned for the coming year, in many cases as joint recruitments by two or more Programs. A single cell sequencing technology initiative led by the Cancer Center to serve all three San Diego NCI cancer centers is well established.